{"id":1224,"date":"2010-03-08T12:04:25","date_gmt":"2010-03-08T17:04:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/?p=1224"},"modified":"2010-03-08T12:04:25","modified_gmt":"2010-03-08T17:04:25","slug":"monday-motivation-happiness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/2010\/03\/08\/monday-motivation-happiness\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday Motivation: Happiness"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Over the weekend, I replied to this post<\/a> on Jane Friedman’s blog<\/a>. (The entry is about happiness — in particular, about what we once believed would make us happy.)<\/p>\n

In replying, I wrote:<\/p>\n

I’ve found that I’m happiest when I do things I can do most days: going for walks and hikes, juggling, enjoying a drink with my wife or friends. In fact, the happiest I am is when we have friends over for dinners. I’m happier on those evenings than I am when I see an article I wrote in print, or finish a big piece of writing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’m more satisfied <\/em>when I see an article in a newspaper or magazine, but I’m happier <\/em>when I’m with people I care about, or doing certain things I enjoy.<\/p>\n

I also wrote:<\/p>\n

At 21…I thought happiness would come only through writing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I started writing seriously when I was 20. I told myself that I would be a successful writer by the time I reached 40.<\/p>\n

I turned 40 last year, and in the months before turning 40, I felt down because I hadn’t reached the goal I set for myself when I was 20.<\/p>\n

I’m okay where I am as a writer, now, though. While I’m not where I thought I’d be based on the perceived writing success I thought I’d have by now, I’m a better writer at 40 than I thought I would be. I’m just as focused and serious about writing as ever, and I’m happy writing no matter what happens. In my reply on Jane’s blog, I wrote:<\/p>\n

I was so concerned thinking that having things published was the only way to be happy as a writer. Now that I appreciate the act of writing more than ever, it doesn’t matter what happens, just as long as I write.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’m just as idealistic as I’ve always been, but I appreciate my time away <\/em>from writing as much as I appreciate my time writing. When I was younger, I based too much of my happiness on writing.<\/p>\n

I wrote:<\/p>\n

“…many of my idealistic dreams of youth never happened. I’m still idealistic, but I no longer look at the list of what I thought would make me happy as the only path to happiness.<\/p>\n

Anytime I’m feeling down, all I have to do is go for a long walk or invite some friends over for dinner.<\/p>\n

Focusing on being happy right now makes it easier than ever to still shoot for those idealistic goals.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Since being laid off, I’ve been very happy. My days are spent writing, spending time with people I care about, and doing things I enjoy. The one short time I supported myself writing, my time was spent writing, juggling, and being with family and friends.<\/p>\n

I loved it!<\/p>\n

Lately, I’ve been focused on writing more than ever. Not because it’s important for me to be regularly published and able to say, “I’m a full time writer,” but because I like the life that making it on my own brings.<\/p>\n

So what about you? What makes you happy? When you focus on what makes you happy, do you find you write better?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the weekend, I replied to this post on Jane Friedman’s blog. (The entry is about happiness — in particular, about what we once believed would make us happy.) In replying, I wrote: I’ve found that I’m happiest when I do things I can do most days: going for walks and hikes, juggling, enjoying a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[24,23,29],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1224"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1224\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}